Normative Thresholds for Acoustic Estimates of Relative Fundamental Frequency.
Daniel P Buckley, Cara E Stepp, Jenny Vojtech
PMID 40707271WHAT IT FOUND
In typical adults, offset RFF was lower with age, and onset RFF differed by sex.
OFF10 cutoffs are -2.73, -3.33, and -3.58 semitones for ages 18-39, 40-64, and 65+; ON1 cutoffs are 0.89 for males and -0.03 for females.
Key findings
01OFF10 was significantly more positive for typical speakers aged 18-39 than for those aged 65 or older, and the lower-end OFF10 cutoffs were -2.73 ST for ages 18-39, -3.33 ST for ages 40-64, and -3.58 ST for ages 65+.
02ON1 was significantly greater for typical male speakers than female speakers, and the lower-end ON1 cutoffs were 0.89 ST for males and -0.03 ST for females.
03When the thresholds were applied to the same typical sample, 12 of 150 participants had average values outside their respective thresholds.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The thresholds were built only from typical speakers, and the paper did not test whether they separate typical speakers from people with voice disorders. Typical voices varied widely: 12 of 150 participants had average values outside the thresholds, so a value below a cutoff can occur in a typical speaker. Participants were English speakers without reported neurological, speech, voice, language, or hearing disorders and without hearing aids, so the values may not apply to other languages or hearing profiles. Some participants did not strictly follow the instruction to give equal stress to the vowels, and the data were analysed as collected. The paper reports only lower cutoffs, not upper cutoffs, because hyperfunctional voice disorders are expected to have lower RFF values. Voice training, singing, or other characteristics were not investigated as possible sources of variability.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflict of interest and no known competing financial interests or personal relationships.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read a value below these cutoffs as proof of a voice disorder. The cutoffs were built from typical speakers only, were not tested against people with voice disorders, and 12 of 150 typical participants had values outside them.